Machines for applying pressure to shoe bottoms



MACHINES FOR APPLYING PRESSURE T0 SHOE BOTTOMS Filed Oct. 25, 1965 Sept. 7, 1965 H. GULBRANDSEN 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 4 6 Z 0v 1w. wh liq- 1 iii. o0 wnwmmmmwmwwmm Inventor Helge Gulbr'arzdselz By his Attorney Sept. 7, 1965 H. GULBRANDSEN 3,204,

MACHINES FOR APPLYING PRESSURE TO SHOE BOTTOMS Filed Oct. 23, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 p 1965 H. GULBRANDSEN 3,204,268

MACHINES FOR APPLYING PRESSURE TO SHOE BOTTOMS Filed 001:. 25, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 MACHINES FOR APPLYING PRESSURE TO SHOE BOTTOMS Filed Oct. 23, 1963 Sept. 7, 1965 H. GULBRANDSEN 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 as) i United States Patent 3,204,268 MACHINES FOR APPLYING PRESURE TO SHOE BOTTOMS Helge Gulhrandsen, Beverly, Mass., assignor to United This invention relates to improvements in machines and apparatus for attaching outsoles to cement shoes and is more particularly adapted to shoes having relatively fiat bottoms. This type of shoe, which although not requiring bottom engaging pad elements, of complex configuration and construction, nevertheless, does provide better acceptability where the character of bottom contour is accentuated by the use of preshaped solid pads of rubber or other similar resilient material, as distinguished from hollow inflatable or relatively fiat pads, which tend to exert the same pressure throughout the entire area of a shoe bottom.

In a machine disclosed in United States application for patent, Serial No. 236,557, filed November 9, 1962 (now Patent No. 3,184,770, granted May 25, 1965) in the names of Phillips et al., there is disclosed sole laying, pressure leveling or attaching apparatus comprising a fiat pad element mounted in a pad box, which when moved upwardly carries a shoe supported thereby into engagement with holding devices, including heel and toe abutments. The machine is capable of operating with moderate success upon left and right shoes which display contours the reverse of each other, as well as upon a reasonable range of various sizes and styles, so long as their bottom areas are not curved excessively.

The shape of a last utilized in the manufacture of the shoe is the only factor which lends character to the bot tom of a shoe constructed on it, inasmuch as the flatness of the pad element in the machine of the prior application otherwise atfords no substantial variation in distribution of pressure on the bottom area. Thus, if there is any irregularity in materials or unexpected difference in thicknesses of parts in a shoe, such difference will readily be apparent to the detriment of the shoe after processing.

One object of the present invention is to provide a relatively simple, inexpensive machine capable of utilizing preformed solid resilient pads to enable the contour of a shoe bottom processed thereby to be impressed with an improved contour not capable of being reproduced by a simple, flat pad regardless of reversal from left to right, or change in size or style.

Another object of the invention is both to improve the facility by which a shoe bottom pressing machine may be operated and to eject a shoe from the machine after a pressing operation has been completed without subjecting it to possibility of injury from the use of a kick-off device heretofore arranged to engage the shoe with an impact.

In accordance with these objects a machine embodying the invention is provided with a single set of shoe engaging and holding devices mounted in the upper portion of a frame and a plurality of shoe supporting pad elements located beneath the holding devices to enable a shoe to be supported on any one of them, in which machine the shoe supporting pad elements are mounted on a movable carrier in the form of a turret for enabling any of the pad elements to be brought conveniently into co-operative relation with the holding devices between successive operations. In this Way, the pad elements may be composed of solid resilient material formed in different shapes to impart accentuated configurations and contours to shoe bottoms in accordance with reversed characters for lefts and rights or changes in various styles and sizes.

3,204,268 Patented Sept. 7, 1965 ice Preferably, the machine is provided with automatic means for shifting the position of the carrier or turret after each pressing operation on a shoe and for retaining the turret against rotation during a succeeding pressing operation on a new shoe, so that each new shoe mounted on a pad element will not be displaced until after the pressure applying operation has been completed.

For the purpose of ejecting a shoe on which the pressure applying operation has been completed, the turret, while being rotated, carries the shoe out of co-operative relationship with the holding devices to an unloading station. The turret is mounted to rotate on a horizontal axis, so that the shoe requires only a gentle engagement with a deflector to displace it from the turret.

These and other features of the invention, as hereinafter described and claimed, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in front elevation of a portion of a machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom in accordance with the features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the machine looking from the right of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional detail view of a pad element supporting turret and shoe engaging and holding devices, taken along the line IIIIII of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional detail plan view of driving connections for the turret; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional side detail view taken along the line VV of FIG. 1.

The machine illustrated in the drawings is intended for operation in laying or leveling outsoles and more particularly, for sole attaching, in which character emphasis on a sole or shoe bottom is obtained on selected areas and a graduated reduction in pressure is effective on other selected areas of the sole. For instance, in attaching an outsole to a shoe the greatest pressure should be exerted along the areas to which cement has been applied. As a result of greatest pressures on cement areas reduced pressures will be exerted along extreme edges and extremities of the shoe bottom, thus avoiding overstressing of the parts and wrapping of the outsole too abruptly about the break line of a last supporting the shoe. These results are accomplished by utilizing solid resilient supporting pads conformed with a contour generally corresponding to that of the shoe bottom and with preformed depressions of increasing depth along the central areas. In so doing the depressions formed on a pad adapted for use with a right shoe sole is more or less the reversed, mirror image of one intended for use with a left sole. Also, smaller variations in contours may be desirable for different styles and sizes of shoes, although style and size variations may well be accommodated by the use of a compromise contour in a pad, especially if suitable adjustments are made in a mounting box for supporting it.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the machine is supported by a frame fabricated from standard steel forms with a base 10 and a scatfold 12 projecting upwardly from the base. Mounted on an upper cross bar 13 of the scalfold in a single set of shoe engaging and holding devices comprising toe and heel abutments 14 and 16. Beneath the shoe engaging and holding devices are a plurality of shoe supporting pad elements 18 arranged selectively to elevate a single shoe 20 at a time toward the holding devices and to press the shoe bottom, after engagement with the holding devices, to cause the particular pad element to exert a suitable contour accentuating pressure. By this construction a single set of abutments and a single actuating mechanism are suflicient.

In prior machines of the same nature as that disclosed it is common practice to utilize a single pad element of operated upon is of the high heel womens style there rarely is any effort made to utilize a solid resilientzpad having the exact contour of that shoe bottom unless a pair of complete independent pressing stations is utilized in a single machine. A pair of independent stations requires two sets of abutments and two sets of actuating mechanisms.

In accordance with an important feature of the invention, the pad elements 18 are contoured for the best results on flat bottom low heel shoes and are available in several pairs of preshaped contours for rights and lefts, so that selected pad elements may be utilized conveniently in each ,pair for a right and a left shoe. By such arrangement a simple and inexpensive construction enables the use of the single set of shoe engaging and holding devices with any selected one of the pad elements. In this way, the full benefit of specially contoured pad elements is available for use without extensive manual adjustment or the provision of more than one actuating mechanism.

To enable the selected pad elements to be utilized they are mounted upon a turret 22 of square cross section rotatable about a horizontal axis on a shaft 24 to which the turret is secured. The shaft is supported in upstanding arms of a yoke 26. If more than two pairs of pads are required a hexagonal or other polygonal turret may be used. The yoke is movable vertically to carry the shoe 20 toward and away from the shoe holding devices and to provide a gap between the pad element 18 and the holding devices 14 and 16 within which theshoe may be loaded or unloaded easily from the pad element.

To raise and lower the shoe supported on the uppermost pad 18 the yoke 26 is secured to the upper end of a vertical slide 28 mounted in a guideway 30 having a'flange at its upper end bolted to the upper surface of the base and connected to hydraulic actuating mechanism comprising a piston and rod 31 secured to the slide '28. Surrounding the piston and rod is a hydraulic cylinder 32 mounted on the base 10 and connected by means of a tube- 34 to a solenoid valve 36. The solenoid valve in turn is connected to an adjustable relief valve 38 (see FIG. 2), the adjustment of which is accomplished by rotating a threaded shaft 40 for varying the force of a relief spring in the valve. For convenience in rotating the shaft 40 it is connected through bevel gears 42 to an adjusting handle 44 on a shaft 45 projecting from the front of the base 10 just above a pressure gage 46, the supply of fluid under pressure being provided by a'motor driven pump 48 within the base. For-energizing the solenoid valve 36 it is connected in circuit with a microswitch 50 arranged to be actuated by a spring elevated treadle 52 having its forward end projecting toward the front of the machine for convenience of operation.

Each pad element 18 is mounted in an articulated selfadjusting pad box comprising toe, shank and heel parts 54, 56 and 58. The heel part 58 is mounted in a convenient manner on the turret 18 by pins 60 and 61 passing through lugs on the heel part and on the turret. The shank part 56 at its rearward end has two perforated lugs through which passes the pin 60 for mounting it for swinging movement on the turret. The toe part 54 of the box, which supports the pad element along the toe end of a soe is pivotally connected to the shank part 56 of the pad box by a pin 62 secured in lugs extending downwardly from the toe part and rotatable in similar lugs extending downwardly from the shank part. To enable the toe part 54 of each pad box to balance roughly the pressures exerted upon it, it has additional lugs extending downwardly therefrom within which is secured a pin 64 sliding at its ends in horizontalslots formed in upstanding lugs on the turret 22. By this construction the pressure on the bottom of-a shoe supported by the uppermost pad 18 will be distributed in a desired manner as the shoe is engaged with the toe and'heel abutments 14 and 16.

To assist further in distributing the pressures exerted along the bottom of a shoe the toe abutment 14 is adjustably secured in the shorter arm of a lever 66 fulcrumed on a pin 68 mounted in a slide 70 engaged with a horizontal guideway 72. The guideway 72 is secured in the upper cross member 13 of the scaffold. The longer arm of the lever 66 is formed with a pair of projecting ribs 67 engaged by opposed grooves along the upper portion of the heel abutment 16. In this way, the lever 66 as a whole may be moved lengthwise of a shoe to be operated upon, or the heel abutment 16 may be moved closer or further away from the toe abutment 14 in accommodation for shoes of different s'mes.

For convenience in selecting the pad element desired for operation upon a particular shoe each pad box part 54, 56 and 58 is mounted upon a flat surface on each of four sides of the square turret 22 and mechanism is provided for rotating the turret after each pressing operation on a shoe and for retaining the turret against rotation during a succeeding pressing operation on a new shoe. For the purpose of retaining the turret against rotation, there is secured to the left end of the turret, as viewed in FIG. 1,'a notched wheel 74 (best seen in FIG. 5) and a spring pressed plunger 76 is mounted in the yoke 26 for sliding movement into and out of a notch in the wheel, there being one notch for each of the four positions assumed by the turret when any one of the pad elements is in co-operative position with relation to the toe and heel abutments.

The mechanism for rotating the turret comprises an overrunning roll-type clutch connected to the turret with a gear-toothed ring member 78 (see FIGS. 3 and 4) rotatable loosely on the shaft 24 between the scaffold 12 and the yoke 26. Within the ring member 78 are three rolls 80 disposed within tapered notches of a collar 82 made fast to the shaft 24. When the ring member is rotated in one direction it runs freely on the shaft and when rotated in the other direction it causes the turret to rotate with it.

To rotate the ring member 78 its teeth are engaged with a yieldingly restrained rack 84 slidingly mounted within a vertical guideway 86 bolted to one side of the scaffold 12. To restrain the rack 84 its lower end has passing through it a stud 87, also passing through the forked upper end of a threaded rod 88. Surrounding the rod 88 is a compression spring 90 confined between a pair of check nuts 92 and a bracket 94 secured to the scaffold 12. At the lower end of the rodis a second pair of check nuts 96acting'againstthe lower surface of the bracket 94 as a limit stop for upward movement of the threaded rod 88 and rack 84. The bracket 94 also serves as a guide for the rod 88 during upward movement of the yoke 26 and the pads 18 to bring a shoe into engagement with the abutments 14 and 16 prior to a shoe pressing operation. The nuts 96 engage the underside of the bracket 94 to retain the rack from movement, the ring member 78rotating idly about the shaft 24 and the plunger 76 engaging one of the notches in the wheel 74 to retain the turret from rotation during ascent of the shoe.

After each shoe pressing operation, reduction of pressure within the cylinder 32 permits the pads 18 and the shoe thereon to descend by reason of the weight of the parts. During the first part of the descending movement of the shoe the action of the plunger 76 engaging the I notched wheel 74 causes the rack to be lowered against which has been compressed during downward movement of the shoe causes the turret to continue rotation until a succeeding notch in the wheel '74 is reached. As soon as the plunger engages a new notch in the wheel 74 rotation of the turret is arrested and any further downward movement causes the spring 90 to be partially compressed as it is illustrated in the drawings, the amount of compression in the spring providing adequate variation to take care of height differences in shoes of diiferent sizes and styles as they reach the upper limits of their movement against the abutments.

To prevent separation of the ring member 78 from the rack 84 during its vertical movement the right end of the shaft 24 has secured to it a roll 99 best shown in FIG. 4. The roll 99 fits within a groove 100 (FIG. 4) formed in the guideway 86. The roll 99 also insures proper meshing relationship between the teeth on the ring member 7 8 and those on the rack.

In forming the pads the shoe engaging surfaces are recessed along their central areas each to provide a shsoe conforming depression 102 (FIGS. 1 and 2) and as the turret is rotated in the direction of the arrow 104 in FIG. 2 a pad A (see FIG. 3) with a right shoe depression in line with the abutments 14 and 16 is followed by a pad A with a left shoe depression or the reverse as the turret is lowered. The first pair A A of pads coming into alinement with the abutments 14 and 16 may have depressions 102 shaped particularly for shoes at the large end of a complete range of sizes and the pads in a second pair B B coming into alinement with the abutments may have depressions 102 more particularly shaped for accommodating shoes at the smaller end of a range of sizes. In this way, a complete range of sizes may be operated upon without sacrificing the character of contour in shoes while at the same time enabling the use of a relatively inexpensive press.

To assist in automatic removal of a shoe from the ma chine after completion of a pressing operation there is mounted at the rear of the base a chute 106 (see FIG. 2) secured in place by braces 198. The rearward end of the shoe projects beyond the rear of the base so that a storage receptacle 110 may be disposed in line with the shoe to receive the completed shoes. The upper end of the chute is constructed with a shoe deflecting ledge 112 arranged to displace forceably a shoe carried by a pad as the turret is rotated in case the shoe should adhere to the pad.

The nature and scope of the invention having been indicated and a particular embodiment having been described, what is claimed is:

1. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, said machine having a frame, a single set of shoe-engaging and holding abutments mounted in the upper portion of the frame, a plurality of shoe supporting pad elements located beneath the holding abutments to enable them to press the bottom of a shoe mounted on one pad ele ment at a time and actuating means for moving all the pad elements toward the holding abutments to apply pressure to a shoe supported on one pad element and away from the holding abutments to provide a loading gap be tween the abutments and the pad elements for a shoe between pressure applying operations, in combination with a turret carried by the actuating means and provided with pad boxes for the pad elements, in which each pad element is mounted to enable different pad elements to be brought into co-operative relation with the holding abutments between successive operations of the actuating means.

2. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom,

as in claim 1, in which means are provided for rotating the turret after each pressing operation on a shoe and for retaining the turret against rotation during a succeeding pressing operation on a new shoe.

3. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, as in claim 2, in which there is provided a deflector mounted on the machine frame to eject each shoe from its pad element as the turret is rotated.

4. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, as in claim 2, in which there is provided a chute mounted on the machine frame and constructed with a shoe deflecting ledge arranged to displace a shoe carried by a pad element as the turret is rotated and to conduct the shoe into a storage receptacle.

5. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, .as in claim 2, in which the turret rotating means comprises an overrunning clutch connected to move with the turret toward and away from the holding abutments with the turret, a gear for driving the overrunning clutch and a rack yieldingly restrained against movement by the gear.

6. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, as in claim 2, in which the turret rotating means comprises an overrunning clutch, a gear connected with the overrunning clutch, a rack for rotating the gear, a notched wheel connected to the turret and a spring pressed plunger mounted for sliding movement into a notch in the Wheel to restrain the rack against movement by the gear as the pressure applying means moves the pad elements away from the holding abutments.

7. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, as in claim 6, in which means is provided for pressing the spring pressed plunger out of a notch in the wheel to enable yielding action of the rack to rotate the turret to a position where the plunger engages another notch in the wheel.

8. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, said machine having a frame, a single set of shoe toe and heel holding abutments mounted in fixed positions at the upper portion of the frame, a plurality of resilient shoe supporting pad elements located beneath the holding abutments to enable pressure to be applied to the bottom of a shoe mounted on one pad element at a time, and actuating means for moving vertically all the pad elements together toward the holding abutments to apply pressure to a shoe supported on one pad element and away from the holding abutments to provide a loading gap for a shoe between the abutments and the pad elements, in combination with a carrier mounted for movement on the actuating means, said carrier being provided with pad boxes for the pad elements to enable different pad elements to be brought into co-operative relation with the holding abutments between successive operations of the actuating means.

9. A machine for applying pressure to a shoe bottom, as in claim 8, in which mechanism is provided for shifting the carrier after each pressing operation on a shoe and for retaining the carrier against shifting movement during a succeeding pressing operation on a new shoe.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 347,050 8/86 Knox 12-33 1,389,714 9/21 Valois l233 2,338,764 1/44 Hart 1233 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner. 

1. A MACHINE FOR APPLYING PRESSURE TO A SHOE BOTTOM, SAID MACHINE HAVING A FRAME, A SINGLE SET OF SHOE-ENGAGING AND HOLDING ABUTMENTS MOUNTED IN THE UPPER PORTION OF THE FRAME, A PLURALITY OF SHOE SUPPORTING PAD ELEMENTS LOCATED BENEATH THE HOLDING ABUTMENTS TO ENABLE THEM TO PRESS THE BOTTOM OF A SHOE MOUNTED ON ONE PAD ELEMENT AT A TIME AND ACTUATING MEANS FOR MOVING ALL THE PAD ELEMENTS TOWARD THE HOLDING ABUTMENTS TO APPLY PRESSURE TO A SHOE SUPPORTED ON ONE PAD ELEMENT AND AWAY FROM THE HOLDING ABUTMENTS TO PROVIDE A LOADING GAP BETWEEN THE ABUTMENTS AND THE PAD ELEMENTS FOR A SHOE BETWEEN PRESSURE APPLYING OPERATIONS, IN COMBINATION WITH A TURRET CARRIED BY THE ACTUATING MEANS AND PROVIDED WITH PAD BOXES FOR THE PAD ELEMENTS, IN WHICH EACH PAD ELEMENT IS MOUNTED TO ENABLE DIFFERENT PAD ELEMENTS TO BE BROUGHT INTO CO-OPERATIVE RELATION WITH THE HOLDING ABUTMENTS BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE OPERATIONS OF THE ACTUATING MEANS. 